The physical store front

Art of Shaving and Pasteurs are 2 more fairly large B&M shops.

I've also noticed more and more pharmacy and convenience stores selling DE and SE shaving blades, along with cheap, imported badger brushes, and Van der Hagen soaps and splashes.  Stores like CVS, RiteAid, Kmart, WalMart, and a lot of other big box stores. You can also find assortments of artisan shave soaps at many barbershops these days.

I can't count AoS. Yes they are a B&M store, but since they are owned by Gillette and push products to get people into Gillette gear, I think that makes them about as big of a non B&M storefront around.

believe it or not, the shop rites around my area have a pretty decent shaving selection.

believe it or not, the shop rites around my area have a pretty decent shaving selection.

I think this shows that the interest is definitely there and that sites like DFS have had a positive impact, even if just a small one.  Also, the flip may be true.  That is, a man shopping at Shop Rite (which is a large supermarket chain in the northeastern part of the U.S., for those who may not know) and goes to pick up that can of gel or foam may have his curiosity piqued and take a look at the wet shaving supplies.  Even if he doesn't buy that Van der Hagen shaving brush sitting on the same shelf as the canned foam, he may go home, Google it, learn more, and find himself here, or a place like it.

All of this is to the good and can only help the wet shaving community in general.

wet shaving is still a very niche market, imho.  while we've come a LONG way from even 5 years ago, it's still very small.  hopefully in the next 10 years, we'll see a B&M wet shaving store in a vast majority of large cities around the world..

Wet shaving is a niche market; no question. Soap makers and potters (i.e., bowl and scuttle makers) notwithstanding, the volume of business (outside of a very few large cities) just isn't large enough, at least at present, to support a large number of B&M stores. The other challenge the B&M store faces is acquiring quality inventory. That means there needs to be enough makers able to wholesale their products on a continuing basis--and wholesaling, my friends, is a whole new ballgame compared with direct Internet selling. To start, the volume of product sold needs to be enough to support the maker's selling at 40-50% discount from retail. That means having the ability to double--or more likely triple (quadruple?)--one's volume. To get to that point entails significant investments in equipment, facilities to house that equipment, engaging (and keeping!) skilled workers to operate the equipment, not to mention office staff to answer emails, take and fill orders, and so on. All that costs money--a LOT of money (both in up front capital and continuing cash flow.) Doing that in this country is a pretty steep and very risky hill to climb.

Yes, there are Chinese manufacturers who will crank out thousands of pieces, but is that really the way we want to see things go?

Don't get me wrong. I would love to see the market expand to the point where (for example) Simpson, Shavemac, Boker, T.I. (et al.) would get some serious competition on volume. Yes, there are a number of artisans out there who compete successfully on quality, but I doubt we're going to see their work in AoS stores any time soon.